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20090901

Two dead in rural Douglasdale security complex gunfight

Upmarket smallholders wake up to sounds of fierce gun-fight - two suspects dead, two injured

2009-09-01 Johannesburg –The high-security rural housing complex Waterford Estate at Farmall/Douglasdale/Bloubosrand north of Randburg erupted in a wild-west gunfight between cops and robbers early on Tuesday morning, and during which two suspects were shot dead and two seriously injured. Residents were awakened by the gun-shots in the early-morning hours. Police suspect the gang of amongst others, murdering local young mom Tracey-Leigh Frankish of Farmall in a series of armed attacks on local families.

The crime rate in this high-income smallholdings area north of Randburg is truly horrendous – despite a very active police-community patrolling unit which patrols the area 24/7, with many local residents actively engaged in carrying out security checks during their waking hours. View the crime lists from the police-community forum:http://www.rac.org.za/forum/viewforum.php?f=15

The gang is linked to at least five various armed attacks in high-security complexes in the Bloubosrand/Douglasdale region, and were being sought by police for the past ten days, said police inspector Balan Muthan.

Four suspects climbed through the electrified fencing around the upmarket Waterford Estate security complex early on Tuesday-morning, he said, triggering the alarm. “The Douglasdale counter-murder police task team was rushed to the scene, and a gunfight broke out between the police and the gang, ‘ said Muthan.

“These gangsters break into security complexes by climbing the walls and even through the electrified fencing, breaking in while their victims are asleep. They hold people at gunpoint while plundering the homes, and have shot victims’ said Muthan.

Local ward councillor John Mendelsohn is up in arms, – actively drumming up support for a protest gathering outside Douglasdale police station on Saturday 19 September at 9:30am. He said ( tel 82 578 0418 ) that ‘within the space of just two weeks, violent incidents of crime have affected me.

“ I have myself been the victim of a garage shop robbery; my brother, his wife and two friends have been victims of a driveway robbery at his home; a mother of two young children has been murdered in cold blood outside a garage in Witkoppen Road; and I attended the exceptionally sad and emotional memorial service for Tracy-Leigh Frankish who was murdered in her home in Farmall.

The Government must protect the lives and property of its residents:

“ I now question the ability of our Government to fulfil the most basic obligations of an organised state. A state owes two essential obligations to its citizens and residents… namely, to secure its borders and to protect the lives and property of its residents.

“Does our Government not know its obligations? It seems not, because in each instance our Government has failed us.

“Our border with Zimbabwe is one in name only, except that it is mainly one way traffic. As for protecting its residents, well, do the facts not speak for themselves? Have we not perhaps descended so far down a spiral that we have become a semi-failed state? I do hope not, but I can blame no one who believes this to be the case.

“The Zimbabwe border has to be effectively secured, and the Official Opposition is pressing this issue in Parliament as matter of urgency.

“As for protecting our lives and properties, I propose a demonstration at our local Police Station at Douglasdale. I shall be organising a date and time and shall be mobilising residents and all other interested people in the City to participate. It is time for the police to shake up their present approach to crime prevention and to utilise their resources in far more intelligent and innovative ways. Above all, it is time for the police to see our anger and to react appropriately.

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '